The invention relates to a sanitary or incontinence pad with wings which can be folded about the web of an undergarment, wherein the pad has a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction and a front end region in the longitudinal direction which end region covers at least one quarter of the overall longitudinal extension of the pad, and a rear end region in the longitudinal direction which covers at most one quarter of the overall longitudinal extension of the pad, with a primary pad part which extends in the longitudinal direction with its longer dimension and accommodates an absorption body for bodily fluids, and with two wings on each longitudinal side of the primary pad part which project in transverse direction from the primary pad part so as to form a front and a rear wing pair, wherein the front wing pair is arranged outside of the front end region in longitudinal direction so that the front end region is not flanked by wings, wherein the wings of the front wing pair and the rear wing pair are each delimited by a front side flank and a rear side flank.
Sanitary or incontinence pads with wings have been described repeatedly, in particular in WO 96/38110 A1, EP 0 731 681 B1, DE 2000 96 10 U1, WO 98/06367 A1, EP 0 511 905 B1. Proceeding from the genus-forming sanitary or incontinence pad according to WO 96/38110 A1, the present invention is based on the objective to improve the handling of the sanitary article during arrangement on an undergarment and to also optimize the wearing properties of the sanitary article. This poses conflicts of objectives in several regards. On one hand a secure arrangement of the pad on the crotch web of an undergarment is sought to be achieved via an areal extension and configuration of the wings which is as great as possible. However, because of the three dimensionally arched shape of the pad during use it was recognized with the present invention that an expansive wing configuration is also associated with disadvantages, by disadvantageously stiffening the wings, which proves disadvantageous when arranging the pad in the undergarment as well as when wearing the pad. Within the context of the present invention this was found to also be the case when the rear wing pair is not folded about the lateral borders of the leg opening of the undergarment on its outside, but lies flat against the undergarment from the inside, preferably adhesively fixed. In this case the three dimensional deformation of the sanitary article has also disadvantageous effects on the wear comfort of the sanitary article during use.